Muhammad al-Sanusi

Works

• c. 1470The Mother of Proofs (The Small Creed)

  Very short creed that lists what is necessary, impossible and possible for God and for the prophets, each with its rational proof, and closes with the profession of faith as the sum of all doctrine; memorised and commented on across North and West Africa, in Egypt and in Southeast Asia, and adapted into many languages.

Position

Al-Sanusi is on the map as the theologian whose creeds became a widely used introduction to Ashʿari theology in North and West Africa and as far as Southeast Asia. His series of creeds, from the long Creed of the People of Unity with its commentary to the short Mother of Proofs (Umm al-barāhīn), sets out what is necessary, impossible and possible for God and for the prophets, each with its rational proof, and shows that the profession of faith contains the whole of doctrine. Their most controversial thesis concerns imitation (taqlīd): al-Sanusi held that every adult believer must know the proofs of God’s existence and attributes and may not simply take them over from parents and teachers – a belief resting on imitation alone is deficient. He also insisted that mystical inspiration, though real, does not free anyone from the duty of reasoning, since otherwise Christian ascetics could have reached the true creed by their exercises. In line with Ashʿari occasionalism he taught that created power has no effect on acts and that God is the only real agent. The TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi sees in his emphasis on rational knowledge the influence of later Ashʿaris such as Fakhr al-Din al-Razi and al-Taftazani. He also wrote on logic, including a commentary on al-Khunaji’s Sentences. His works were translated or adapted into Berber, Fulani, Turkish, Malay and Javanese, they are still taught at al-Azhar and in Morocco, and Muhammad Abduh drew on him in his Theology of Unity. Khaled El-Rouayheb devoted a monograph to him (2026).

Life & context

Abu ʿAbd Allah Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Sanusi was born in Tlemcen, in present-day Algeria, in 1428 or 1434, according to two reports of his student al-Mallali. He learned first from his father, then in the madrasas of Tlemcen, and studied hadith with ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Thaʿalibi in Algiers and arithmetic and logic with other teachers, among them the mathematician al-Qalasadi. In Algiers he received the Sufi cloak from Ibrahim al-Tazi. He spent most of his life in Tlemcen, which was then politically fragmented and insecure, teaching, guiding people and writing on almost every Islamic science – theology, logic, Qur’anic exegesis, hadith, law and medicine. Among his students were Muhammad al-Mallali, who wrote a book on his life and miracles, Ahmad Zarruq and Muhammad al-Maghili. He died in Tlemcen on 9 May 1490.

Further main works

• The Mother of Proofs (Umm al-barāhīn, also al-ʿAqīda al-ṣughrā)
• The Creed of the People of Unity (ʿAqīdat ahl al-tawḥīd al-kubrā) with its commentary ʿUmdat ahl al-tawfīq
• The Middle Creed (al-ʿAqīda al-wusṭā) with its commentary
• Epitome of Logic (Mukhtaṣar fī l-manṭiq) with his own commentary
• Commentary on al-Khunaji’s Sentences on logic (Sharḥ al-Jumal)